It’s been a long road for the Edina-based grocery chain to get to this stage of the development process. Talks of a Lunds store at 1201 Hennepin Ave. S. got going in late 2004. Now, nearly seven years later, plans for the market are finally moving ahead.

The 20,000-square-foot market is expected to open next summer in the building formerly home to Billy Graham’s headquarters. A 5,600-square-foot Lunds Wine Market will also open nearby at 1208 Harmon Ave.

Tres Lund, CEO of Lund Food Holding, said a second downtown store has always been the strategy for the company. Lunds opened its University & Central store in 2006.

The new Loring Park location will become an “urban village,” he said. Besides the grocery store and wine shop there will be other new retailers on the block, too.

While the Hennepin grocery store will be the smallest in the Lunds and Byerly’s family, it will be a full-service grocery store. Lunds executives have visited markets in Manhatten to study how stores with small footprints maximize space.